There are two kinds of update:
The software periodically checks for updates using your internet connection and tells you when a major update is available. Minor updates are not announced this way. If a minor update affects you, you are told by e-mail, or through the crash reporting built into the software.
Maintenance must be active to download and install an update. See Maintenance.
From the Administrator's Guide for Analyse-it 6.24.0: https://analyse-it.com/docs/user-guide/software-updates